Jinjin: “don’t let him go the same way you’ve been letting him go the past few years”

Rocky, before accidentally wiggling his foot a bit too hard and falling off the sofa: "better tell him before he heads back"

Bin watching Hwiyoung startle awake at Rocky’s yelp

Bin saying quietly: "what makes you think he’d accept me?”

Jinjin, looking at Bin in slightly disbelief: “have you seen the way he looks at you?????”

Rocky, scrambling up and brushing himself off: "he looks at you like he can’t quite believe you exist"

Bin: "but-"

Jinjin: "i know you’re scared he won’t like you back but"

Rocko: "trust us, he really does"

Jinjin: "unless you’re scared he might already have someone else in the city?"

Rocko: "or that he’d meet someone else back there that he’d prefer?"

Jinjin: “he’s as sickeningly in love with you as you are with him, you idiot”

Rocko: “and if you’ve been in love with him for forever, chances are that it’s like that the other way round too”

Hwiyoung, yawning and rubbing his eyes: "what are you both, a tag team???"

Bin watching Rocky shove Hwiyoung and squeeze himself between Hwiyoung and Jinjin on the sofa

Bin, in a small voice: "what makes you think he won’t forget me again when he gets back?"

Hwiyoung, simply: "then give him something to remember”

Jinjin yelling at Rocky for splashing him and Bin cackling and Eunwoo doing that one laugh

you know that one laugh where his mouth stretches really wide

Eunwoo isn’t sure when he agreed to jump into the ocean but Rocky and Jinjin strolled onto the boardwalk topless and shucked off their slippers and jumped into the shallow waters

And proceeded to holler at Eunwoo to join them

Bin running after them onto the boardwalk and yelling at them to stop bothering Eunwoo

Eunwoo laughing and shucking off his tank top before jumping in too because heck it, it’s been so long since he played in the water and it’s such a hot day he might as well

Bin standing there with the three of them hollering at Bin to jump in before deciding also to heck it because if Eunwoo’s in there there’s no point staying on the boardwalk anyway

Bin peeling off his shirt

Me still being attacked by Astroad apparently Bin instigated the whole thing

Eunwoo regretting all the choices he’s ever made that led up to this instant because holy shit he really wasn’t ready

Eunwoo trying to will down his blush while treading water

Rocky and Jinjin seeing Eunwoo blushing and just cackling

Bin swimming over to them and immediately Rocky and Jinjin swim farther out and leave Binu alone

Bin: “do you remember the time you thought you were part merman?”

Eunwoo, huffing a laugh: “yeah, and I said I’d be part dolphin”

Smol baby Bin laughing and splashing Eunwoo and telling him he’d be part crab instead

Baby Eunwoo pouting and splashing Bin back

And Bin, laughing: “yeah I still think you’re part-crab”

Eunwoo pouting

And Bin just smiles and starts swimming out to Rockjin and yelling, “race you, crab-boy!!” over his shoulder

Eunwoo laughing and swimming after him before grabbing Bin from behind to keep him from moving forward

Bin turns around to shrug him off and suddenly, they’re close, so close

And Bin can see water droplets on Eunwoo’s eyelashes and Eunwoo’s blinking up at him and smiling and saying something

Bin’s breath catching

He doesn’t remember when it was his brain decided to give up being bitter at Eunwoo and revert all Eunwoo-related matters to Bin’s heart

But his heart is thumping and there’s nothing more he wants than just to lean over and press a kiss on Eunwoo’s cheek

And so he does

And it’s like everything’s snapped into place - the sounds of the waves beating against the both of them, sunlight flashing off the waves in small diamonds, Eunwoo’s eyelashes as he blinks when Bin pulls away slightly, Eunwoo’s blush riding high on smiling cheeks

Bin parking his motorbike outside Eunwoo’s house

Bin doesn’t know what to do

Because Bin’s never come looking for him before - it’s always Eunwoo sliding into the shop or them meeting on the boardwalk

Bin scratching his head before Eunwoo’s brother pops his head out the window

Eunwoo’s brother: “woAh hiya Bin nice ride”

Eunwoo’s brother: “looking for Eunwoo?"

Bin:

Eunwoo’s brother, gently knocking himself on the head: "yeah because who else would you look for lmao come in"

And the moment Bin steps into the house he hears a gentle melody on the piano, something bright and tinkly and light-hearted

And as he slides off his shoes and follows Eunwoo’s brother into the living room the melody stills, then fades into something melancholic, single separate notes aching and lonely and familiar

And Bin stills too, because Eunwoo’s sitting at a small, brown piano, his fingers heavy on ivory keys and crumpled staff sheets littering the top of the piano

And the tune swells and bursts and Eunwoo’s brother and the whole room fades into the background

And all Bin can see is Eunwoo

Eunwoo, laughing in the moonlight and hand on Bin’s knee

Eunwoo, leaning back on his hands and face tilted towards the sun

Eunwoo, chasing a stray drop of ice cream with his tongue

Eunwoo, arms wound around Bin’s waist and awed laugh echoing in his ear

Eunwoo, who slipped into the shop less than three weeks ago and made Bin remember everything from when they were young and dumb and best friends and Eunwoo, who looked exactly like Bin imagined Eunwoo would grow up to look like

Eunwoo, who’s still the same boy who would sit by Bin and listen to Bin talk about the things he loved and who would get worried when Bin did something dangerous and whose fingers still fit right into the spaces between Bin's

Dammit now I need another soulmate!AU watch me kill my heart over it

Eunwoo with fingers dancing along keys, framed with a lilting melody now soft and sweet and gentle and echoing in Bin’s heart

And as Eunwoo’s song comes to an abrupt end and Eunwoo picks up his pencil to scribble notes on his paper, Bin coughs gently

Eunwoo’s head shooting up

Bin coughing a little more because in the process of coughing gently he accidentally swallowed the wrong way and is actually choking

Eunwoo: ????? "Um"

Bin, recovering his breath: "that sounded really good, what was it?”

Eunwoo, shuffling his papers before Bin can see the title: “nah I was just bumming around”

Bin, not really believing Eunwoo because there’s no way that melody was just a result of ‘bumming around’ unless Eunwoo’s secretly a musical genius

Although now when he thinks about it he wouldn’t be surprised if Eunwoo was indeed one

Bin, fishing a small bag of beads out of his back pocket: “came to deliver beads”

And suddenly Eunwoo’s brother comes out of the background because yay!!!! new beads!!! and Eunwoo is laughing

Eunwoo’s brother prodding around the four beads and picking out his own

Eunwoo’s brother, pouting: “wait how come Eunwoo’s has an extra carving on the back”

Bin flushing because wow called oUT

Eunwoo’s brother running off with the beads to their mum

Eunwoo peering at his new deep purple bead: “this isn’t the one my mum chose that day though?”

Bin, shaking his head: “I chose it”

And Eunwoo can’t help himself, he can’t help the silly dumb grin spreading across his face because for the first time he’ll be wearing something picked for him by Bin again

Ayyyy
For Bebeeeee
I should be sleeping now cause I have a thing I need to wake up for at 5 am but I’m not gonna sleep cause I’m nocturnal wooooo
Hope you likeee
And I know her ear’s supposed to show a little but I mean it still kinda does so

Across the sea, in a faraway place, you are thereI go and go but I can’t see youBut it’s a bit too far to go back

The next time Eunwoo meets Bin Bin is 17 and Eunwoo is 18

It’s the first time he’s going back to the seaside in 6 years and Eunwoo’s been excited for ages

The past six school holidays flying by with projects and competitions and soccer matches and Eunwoo getting prizes and trophies left and right and being elected class president but Eunwoo also really missing his grandpa

And he hasn’t had his grandma’s stew in forever!!

Eunwoo also trying to ignore the fact that Bin lives there and that he might run into him

And so when Eunwoo steps out of the car and allows his mum to lead him into the shop to choose the first bead he’s gotten since he was 12, he’s a little hesitant

Eunwoo remembers tinkly windchimes and odd-shaped mirrors and he walks now into the store with hands too high to wander over soft cushions and old silver boxes

But the fan’s still spinning lazily overhead and he’s still surrounded a musty wood-lacquer smell and a stronger, overriding smell of the sea

And then he sees him, bare arms sprawled out on the counter with his face squished against the glass, asleep

Eunwoo stopping in his tracks and time doing the same

Because Bin looks exactly the same as Eunwoo remembers, but different

Bin’s eyes are closed and smudged with black and his hair’s a lighter shade of brown, as messy and unruly as it used to be

His eyelashes are just as long and Eunwoo watches the rise and fall of his back as Bin sleeps

And he looks so peaceful, the same way he looked all those years ago when they fell asleep in Bin’s bed

But all too soon Bin’s mum appears from a back room and gently raps her son on the head

And Bin’s blinking in the bright light and pouting and stretching, limbs flying in all directions until he realises there’s someone in his store

His top lip disappearing in a pout as he sniffles and bows and mumbles a greeting

Until he straightens and he sees Eunwoo, cautiously peeking at Bin

Bin: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Because he hasn’t seen this boy in forever when they used to be best friends

Bin’s mum chasing them out of the store to go grab lunch and catch up while Eunwoo’s mum selects beads for their family

And so they do, silently wandering into the nearest food place and ordering their food

And as Bin places his order before him Eunwoo can’t help but stare at Bin’s back profile

The small 11 year old, all flailing limbs and high pitched squeaks, now a filled out 17 year old, lean with dancing and shoulders broader than the ocean

Eunwoo watches as Bin reaches back to pull his wallet out of his back pocket and his back and arm muscles ripple clearly under his loose black tank top

Eunwoo swallows hard; he knows Bin grew up, but into someone Eunwoo would find insanely attractive? He’s not sure he predicted that

He notes one, two, three piercings in the shell of Bin’s left ear and a helix on the right and a small box in Bin’s left back pocket - cigarettes?

And as they quietly sit down with their bowls of soup (Bin with an extra bowl of rice, Eunwoo could laugh at how Bin that is), Eunwoo looks at the way Bin’s eyeliner looks perfectly smudged, almost as if he applied it before going to sleep and rubbed his eyes when he woke up

Since when…?

Bin, with a mouthful of food: “been busy, city boy?"

Eunwoo chuckling awkwardly and nodding

Bin: "must have been pretty busy not to come down to see your friend anymore, huh"

And Eunwoo winces because even though Bin was the first one to leave, Eunwoo was also the one who skipped out on six whole years of coming down to the seaside

Eunwoo: "yeah, competitions and matches and student council all that."

Bin, looking up at Eunwoo and eyes slightly softening because of course he would

Of course Eunwoo would be high achieving and be student council president and go on competitions and be the captain of whatever

Bin, coughing to cover it and humming: "sounds interesting enough to skip out on visiting for."

And they finish their meal in silence, awkwardness thick between them, nothing like the smooth rivers of conversation that used to flow before

Bin standing up at the end of it and indicating for Eunwoo to follow him out of the restaurant

Bin leading the way to a small alleyway facing the ocean but not quite in the sun and leaning against a wall and pulling out a pack of cigarettes

Bin: "a smoke?"

Eunwoo is stunned because he remember an entire week of biology lectures about genetic mutations and compounds in cigarettes and cancer

And he’s trying to match that with this boy standing in front of him, in ripped jeans and piercings, still young, still fresh to the world

Eunwoo, hesitantly: "no thanks?"

Bin, snorting and looking away: "thought you guys from the city smoked more than we did."

Eunwoo, about to spill something about the harmful effects of smoking when he notices Bin side-eyeing him

And there’s something hard in Bin’s gaze as he lights his cigarette without looking at it, almost challenging and daring him to say something about the habit, something so fierce and angry and desperate all at once that Eunwoo swallows his words and nods mutely

Bin looks away

A moment of silence, and then -

Eunwoo, trying again: "so how’s SuA?"

Bin, snorting again: "she’s leaving for a dance academy in the city next semester” and they fall into a sort of silence, tinged with something bitter and somewhat yearning

Bin taking a drag and tugging at his earrings

Eunwoo, trying again: “when did you get those piercings?”

Bin telling him about each time he went to get a piercing and the reason behind each one

Eunwoo seeing his eyes light up as he talks, almost like the way they used to light up when Bin rambled on about the superheroes he liked

But it’s different, he knows it’s different

Bin isn’t Binnie and Eunwoo isn’t Eu Noo anymore

There’s no reason why after six years of being apart the rift between them should be able to heal

But there’s also no reason, a small voice in Eunwoo’s head says, that it shouldn’t be able to either

Eunwoo isn’t sure why he wants Bin to like him again - he doesn’t know why he’s craving Bin’s acceptance, Bin’s easy smile, Bin laughing as bright as the sun

Bin’s changed, he tells himself, when he slips under the covers that night

He doesn’t need Bin’s approval to be here, he thinks to himself, he has every right to roam the seaside with his grandparents and his brother

But somehow the next morning when he gets up, he finds himself in sunglasses and a tank top and shorts, stumbling onto the wooden boardwalk with two ice cream cones to hand to a surprised and surly Bin

Bin: “ice cream in the morning?”

Eunwoo, smiling slightly: “you never used to have a problem with that.”

Bin, eyes clouding over: “yeah.”

Eunwoo coughs slightly and removes his flip flops - his legs dangle over the side of the boardwalk and where they used to skim the surface, now half his feet are submerged in the water

He doesn’t want it to be awkward, he really doesn’t

Eunwoo: “so uh”

Eunwoo: “when did you start smoking?”

Bin laughs and Eunwoo can’t help but think that no matter how much Bin smokes, his voice somehow seems still feels silky, free of the rumble and grit most smokers have

Bin: “a month ago, same time I got my helix done.”

And before Eunwoo can open his mouth, Bin adds, “why not?”

Eunwoo, closing his mouth sheepishly because Bin’s probably had these kinds of questions before

Bin, chasing a stray drop of ice cream running down his cone with his tongue: “got a motorbike too.”

And immediately Eunwoo’s ears perk up because dammit, awkward or not, he wants to see this motorbike immediately

His mum never let him near motorbikes, said they were too dangerous and Eunwoo is a good child so he never really went near one but damn he wants to see Bin’s

Bin peering over at Eunwoo and grinning slightly at his evident excitement because damn the awkwardness, he’s proud of the bike he’s worked to save up for: “wanna see?”

Eunwoo staring at this heavy, heavy helmet in his hand

Is he supposed to wear this?

Already Bin is fitting his helmet over his head, tugging the strap across his chin

Eunwoo staring

Bin sighing, “so much for the city boy slick,” and fixing the helmet on Eunwoo’s head for him

And suddenly Bin is really close, hands on either side of Eunwoo’s head and Eunwoo has to gulp and look down at his feet before his mind latches on to things he doesn’t want to think about

He’s never really considered it in detail before, but

Bad boy Bin?

Is actually

Kind of attractive

Like, highkey

And Eunwoo doesn’t know what to do with this information

Bin squinting at Eunwoo’s blush and the way his eyelashes flutter when he looks down and Bin just adjusting the strap because there’s no reason why he should be flushing red - is the strap too tight?

Bin fussing over the strap for way too long, eyes trained on Eunwoo’s lashes more so than the strap until Eunwoo gently untangles Bin’s hands from his face with soft fingers and fixes the strap himself

Bin suddenly feeling a twinge when Eunwoo lets go of his hand

But all too fast Bin releases Eunwoo and swings his leg over the motorbike, motioning for Eunwoo to get on

Eunwoo not being able to figure out where to put his hands

Bin pointing to the handles below the seat

Bin watching Eunwoo dubiously prodding the handles

Bin sighing and reaching back to grab Eunwoo’s hands

Eunwoo squeaking slightly and blushing and hoping Bin didn’t notice

he totally did

Bin smirking and winding Eunwoo’s arms around his middle

Eunwoo flushing because wow

He knows Bin dances

He just didn’t know how much

Or how fit Bin is

But Bin doesn’t give him time to dwell over it because Eunwoo’s suddenly flying, wind blowing in his face and through his shirt

And Eunwoo’s laughing, and his heart is racing and it’s a wild, wild feeling that leaves him breathless and giddy and exhilarated and all sorts of free

And he only notices when Bin stops the motorbike outside Eunwoo’s grandpa’s house that his chest is flush against Bin’s back and his arms are wound right on Bin’s abs and his chin is tucked in the sweet dent between Bin’s neck and shoulder and that if Bin turned his head a little, just a little, he’d be able to kiss him

Bin watching Eunwoo look back once, wave, then disappear into the house and suddenly feeling something terribly missing from his middle, his shoulder, his heart

Bin lying on a rock in the shade, hands behind his head and thinking of Eunwoo

How Eunwoo’s laughter in his ear sounds like moonlight bottled up and let loose among the wind-chimes Bin repairs in his free time

How Eunwoo’s arms fit right into Bin’s sides even though Bin’s used to Rocky or Jinjin riding backseat

How Bin’s heart aches every time he sees Eunwoo glance his way with something akin to anxiety and discomfort in his eyes

He knows that it’s him causing the discomfort and it’s him lashing out from harboured feelings of betrayal and loneliness and he knows that this behaviour is something that shouldn’t be forgiven no matter how bitter he is

But Eunwoo didn’t visit for six years

Didn’t even send a message

Didn’t even bother asking Bin’s mum how Bin was

And every time Eunwoo’s mum walked into Bin’s mum’s shop Bin sitting up like a shot, eyes searching for familiar, gentle smiles and soft hands

And every time he’d let Eunwoo’s mum leave, hearing about Eunwoo’s latest competition or match or charity project without asking, what about me?

He’d let her leave without asking after Eunwoo’s number, Eunwoo’s SNS, Eunwoo’s contact information because if Eunwoo’s too busy to come down even for a week, who’s to say Eunwoo isn’t too busy for Bin?

Bin swallowing his tongue and smiling bitterly after every visit because dammit, he was 10 and he looked at Eunwoo like Eunwoo hung the moon in his sky, but Eunwoo’s busy and Eunwoo doesn’t have time for someone like him

He knows he promised, he promised Eunwoo, hands sticky with ice cream and looking out to the pull and crash of waves on rocks that no matter what happened, he’d always go to Eunwoo

But now, even with Eunwoo laughing by his side, he isn’t sure if Eunwoo wants him to

disclaimer i have never ridden a motorbike before i have no idea what it feels like lmao